Here are the top takeaways and highest-graded players from the Redskins’ 21-16 win over the Bills:

Quarterback grades: Kirk Cousins, 79.4; Colt McCoy, 64.5

Kirk Cousins catches fire in the second quarter

Cousins’ game started out poorly, with an opening-drive interception on a forced ball to the boundary, but he went on a tear to close out the half, throwing touchdown strikes on Washington’s final three possessions. Two of his three scoring tosses were under duress, an area of his game that has been outstanding this preseason. When under pressure this month, he has a QB rating of 121.4, and when blitzed, his rating is a ridiculous 136.0.

McCoy wasn’t asked to do much in the second half, as Washington seemed content to focus on running out the clock after a lengthy first half. He completed seven of his eight passes for 59 yards, but his only toss longer than 10 yards through the air was a seam route to a wide-open TE Logan Paulsen that got the Redskins out of the shadow of their own goalpost in the fourth quarter.

Top offensive grades:

OT Trent Williams, 81.3

OT Ty Nsekhe, 80.0

WR DeSean Jackson, 79.9

QB Kirk Cousins, 79.4

TE Vernon Davis, 77.7

Redskins flash their depth at tight end

Considering the health struggles Jordan Reed has endured throughout his career, Washington has to be excited about Vernon Davis’ performance last night. Not only did he snag all three balls thrown his way, 20 of his 42 yards were after the catch and he broke two tackles. It’s early (and a tiny sample size) to be saying he’s back, but if the Redskins can expect this type of production from Davis going forward, they will have possibly the deepest and most versatile group of receivers and tight ends in the NFL.

Last night was LT Trent Williams’ first (and possibly last) action of the preseason, and he put up a clean sheet in pass protection, yielding no sacks, hits or hurries. This season he’ll need to elevate his run blocking if he is to get back to where he was in 2013, but only once after his rookie season in 2010 has he given up more than four sacks in a season.

Top defensive grades:

DI Ricky Jean-Francois, 80.9

CB Josh Norman, 79.8

CB Greg Tole, 78.4

CB Mariel Cooper, 77.5

LB Terence Garvin, 76.9

New faces in the secondary appear to be paying off

Washington’s CBs obviously had a big day, as not even included in the top five defenders is Kendall Fuller, who may have given up three catches but also had an interception and a pass defensed. The trio listed above was targeted a total of 10 times, and gave up just three catches for 41 yards, and Josh Norman’s pass break-up prevented a touchdown.

Jean-Francois did most of his damage on the pass rush, as he notched a sack and a hit. While the entire defense racked up three sacks and 20 pressures, tacking was an absolute disaster, as the Redskins missed 16! Four players accounted for two each, including rookies NT Matt Ioannidis and ILB Su’a Cravens.

While we were excited to see star WR Sammy Watkins’ first action of the preseason, after the first seven pass plays both his and starting QB Tyrod Taylor’s days were done, as the two failed to hook up in limited action. Manuel played the remainder of the game, and while he graded out reasonably well, it’s alarming how much he honed in on one passing area. He completed 14 of 16 throws between the numbers and short of 10 yards from the line of scrimmage for a total of 130 yards. While this is impressive efficiency, it is concerning that he completed just seven of his other 22 passes, including going just one for seven in the same yard range but outside the numbers. Buffalo obviously isn’t asking him to be their starter going forward, but should Taylor miss time with injury, opposing defenses will certainly be aware of this bias.

Top offensive grades

OT Chris Martin, 76.5

OT Cyrus Kouandjio, 75.8

OT Justin Renfrow, 75.7

QB E.J. Manuel, 75.3

C Fernando Velasco, 74.9

Most of the offensive standouts came from the offensive line

The Bills had plenty of problems in pass protection last night, but almost none of them came from the four players above. The quartet combined to give up one sack (charged to Renfrow) and no other pressures on the night. On the opposite end of the spectrum were RT Seantrel Henderson and LG Ryan Groy, who combined to yield a sack and seven hurries.

Top defensive grades:

ILB Brandon Spikes, 81.8

CB Corey White, 79.8

S Colt Anderson, 76.6

DI Jerel Worthy, 74.7

ED Lorenzo Alexander, 73.6

Brandon Spikes, Lorenzo Alexander the only bright spots on an otherwise brutal day for the linebackers

Spikes was the highest-graded player of the game for either team, despite surrendering a penalty. He had two defensive stops and no missed tackles, which sounds benign until compared to other Bills defenders, as the rest of the defense whiffed 15 times. OLB Kroy Biermann, ILB David Hawthorne and CB Kevon Seymour combined to miss eight of their own. Not surprisingly the trio found themselves at the very bottom of our grades for the evening, joined by teammate LB Randell Johnson who also missed a tackle.

Josh joined PFF as an analyst in 2015. During the season, his primary focus is college football (mainly the Big Ten). He is also heavily involved in PFF's NFL draft coverage. Prior to joining the team, he worked for six years with GM Jr. Scouting, an independent draft scouting service. Follow @@PFF_Josh

Ha

You know it’s preseason when EJ Manuel looks somewhat decent

HTTRer

LOL

Kevin Kovach

I think your table is only taking the sum of the first two rows for ‘All Plays’

jerryslittlething

No mention Bills sat vertually all starters. Redskins starters vs third strigers yet there is no adjustment for that in the grades. Hell, I could look like a probowler if I played against 10 yr olds, kinda the same thing.

EastEndDefender

You can’t blame Kirk for that interception. It was luck that the ball landed on top of the defender and his foot never touched out of bounds. That was just unlucky.

HTTRer

While it was an unlucky bounce, you have to admit, there was no way he should have thrown the ball. The defender was right in front of Ross.